Sayo Yasuda
The true antagonist, known only as , shortened from the surname Yasuda (安田). Throughout the entirety of Requiem of the Golden Witch, it is suggested that the name given to Yasu from the Fukuin House is Shannon. Yasu is the child of Kinzo Ushiromiya and Beatrice Ushiromiya and was born due to the result of incest. Yasu is, at the same time, Kinzo's child and grandchild. As a result, Yasu is actually the third Beatrice; among the three, Yasu is the witch and the "illusory" Beatrice who appears in the series. The series hinges on the mysteries surrounding Yasu. Relationships *Beatrice - first persona *Shannon - second persona *Kanon - third persona *Battler Ushiromiya - love, rival, step-cousin, nephew *George Ushiromiya - love, fiance, step-cousin, nephew *Jessica Ushiromiya - love, girlfriend, step-cousin, niece *Maria Ushiromiya - best friend, step-cousin, niece *Ange Ushiromiya - rival, step-cousin, niece *Chiyo Kumasawa - mentor *Beatrice Castiglioni- grandmother *Beatrice Ushiromiya - mother, half-sister *Kinzo Ushiromiya - father, grandfather *Clair Vaux Bernardus - original Beatrice persona, vessel (during Requiem) *Lion Ushiromiya - Yasu's alternate universe self *Lambdadelta - Possible Witch Guardian Past Yasu was the child whom Kinzo gave to Natsuhi Ushiromiya to raise as her own, though she rejected the child and was left guilt-ridden when the child fell off the cliff along with another servant nineteen years ago. Unknown to Kinzo and Natsuhi, the child survived the incident. Genji and Dr. Nanjo saved the child, but kept this a secret from others in order to prevent another incestuous advance by Kinzo. As a child, Yasu was raised by Nanjo, Kumasawa, and Genji until Yasu was nine years old and introduced as a servant on Rokkenjima. To prevent Natsuhi from suspecting the child's actual identity, everyone was told that Yasu was six years old rather than nine. Because of Yasu's age, sloppiness, and the special treatment received as a result of special relationships with Genji and Kumasawa, Yasu was disrespected by all the older servants. A servant named Shannon with whom Yasu shared a room with was the exception, and Yasu quickly accepted Shannon as a role model. It is later revealed by several monologues that Shannon is Yasu's imaginary friend, and that Yasu has been primary disguised as Shannon. As time progressed, the young servant gained an interest in magic and mystery novels and began to blame incidents resulting from sloppiness, like losing keys or cleaning implements, on Beatrice's magic. When some of the servants were changed, Yasu's interest in magic increased and Yasu began playing pranks on the new servants, claiming that the behavior was the result of being possessed by Beatrice, who became a new persona for Yasu. The Beatrice personality represented Yasu's desire to become a witch rather than a perfect servant and began to dominate the Shannon personality. During the family meeting of 1980, Battler became the love interest of the personality Shannon. Shannon was flattered by the promise that Battler would rescue Shannon with a white horse the next time he visits her, without realizing that he meant it as joke. Yasu started to give up on magic and her main personality switched to Shannon. However, after Asumu's death and Rudolf's remarriage in 1981 to Kyrie Sumadera, Battler left the family due to a quarrel with his father and didn't participate in the next family meeting. Yasu considered it a trial of love. Battler didn't participate the family meeting in 1982 either, and jokes by the siblings hurt Yasu even more. Yasu started to believe that the trial must be an eternal torture and couldn't believe that Battler may have forgotten Shannon, even after having such a nightmare. The family conference in 1983 became the most influential in Yasu's personality change. Battler gave Kyrie several letters addressed to all the siblings, leaving out Shannon. That event broke Shannon's heart. Shannon "visited" Beatrice. Beatrice believed that "the Root of Love" would kill Shannon, so Yasu transferred Shannon's love for Battler to Beatrice. Yasu's personality promised to create a little brother for Shannon with magic so that Shannon would not be lonely and to keep Battler off her mind. That event created the personality, Kanon. In 1984, Yasu spoke about magic terms with Maria, solved the epitaph, and learned the truth about being the child of Kinzo and Kuwadorian-Beatrice. Even after being chosen as the successor, Yasu decided that Krauss should become the successor and nothing should have to change. Yasu only kept Beatrice's dress, the key to the VIP Room, and the ten tons of gold. This event acknowledged the personality of Beatrice on November 29th, 1984. Eventually, the personalities Shannon and Kanon started relationships with George and Jessica. There was an inner conflict of which personality should become the dominant one by getting a partner and erasing the other personalities, because every soul was incomplete. That conflict should have been decided at the family conference in 1986. To Yasu's despair, Battler reappeared in 1986, resulting in the impossibility of a soul completion because of the remaining love towards Battler. Feelings of desperation and self-hatred resulted and Yasu decided to let a direct interpretation of the epitaph be seen as a roulette decide over the fate of everyone. In Requiem of the Golden Witch it is revealed that Yasu was hiding in the VIP after giving Maria the umbrella and before the murders. Yasu had planned to take the four shotguns and perform an elaborate amount of closed room murders that follow the epitath. However, the plan was foiled before the first twilight when the siblings solved the epitath and found Yasu in the form of Beatrice, after which Yasu gave them a card with 1 billion yen of the gold already transferred into money on it and watched them kill each other over the gold. Yasu is eventually killed with a shot to the face by Kyrie, who is the only survivor of the event alongside Rudolf. Relation to Lion Ushiromiya Yasu is the same person as Lion Ushiromiya, but Lion only exists in the worlds where Natsuhi accepts the infant given to her by Kinzo (the probability of this is 1 to 2,578,917). Lion's gender is never explicitly given, which reflects the ambiguity of Yasu's unknown gender. The gender matter Yasu's gender is said to be by Will "one of the story's great mysteries". Will admits that Lion's gender is difficult to discern, remarking that Lion could either be a "fairly slim boy" or a "no nonsense kind of girl". His direct attempt to ask for Lion's gender ends with Lion's response "I'd hate to give you an answer so easily, so I won't". Because people often ask Lion that question, the usual response is the same irritated answer, "Which do I look like to you?", and Lion has developed a bit of a complex towards the question. Bernkastel confirms that she intentionally kept Lion's gender in secret. Will also states that while in several fragments Yasu is portrayed as female, in End of the Golden Witch, the only fragment that referred to Yasu before the cliff fall, Yasu is portrayed as male. In the fifth game, Yasu is assumed to be male, as Natsuhi is described as being harassed by a male speaker during Yasu's phone calls. Moreover that person referred to themselves as Natsuhi's son/Jessica's older brother by one year. However, the likelihood of Yasu being female is reinforced by the fact that the two of Yasu's personas are female (Kanon is the only male persona out of three). In Dawn of the Golden Witch, Battler introduced two demons of opposite sex, but it is impossible to decide who is who, representing this ambiguity. In Requiem of the Golden Witch, there is a short scene during a montage in which Yasu bemoans having a "damaged" body that is "incapable of love", indicating that Yasu suffered some injury as result of the cliff fall. Also in the 5th game during the phone call "the man from 19 years ago" mentioned a wound, which "he" received because of Natsuhi and that it could not be healed. However, whether Yasu is male or female, in spite of the youth's low self-confidence, Yasu is hinted to be a truly fascinating person. Remarkably, Yasu was able to obtain the love of all three oldest Ushiromiya cousins (Battler, George and Jessica). Different Identities and Illusions Arriving at Rokkenjima and having no friends, Yasu created the alter ego Shannon (a perfect maid, loved and respected by everyone), as a role model and friend. However, a growing interest in magic resulted in Yasu's desire to become a witch rather than remaining human. Abandoning the Shannon persona, Yasu created Clair Vaux Bernardus, the first prototype of the Golden Witch Beatrice, as a self-image. However, a connection still existed between the two identities: Shannon had become the shy and clumsy, but persistent maid, and lover of mystery novels; and Beatrice (the strong side of the two), the ever so powerful and majestic witch. When Shannon's delusional love of Battler winds up causing Yasu too much pain, the persona's are torn apart. Beatrice assumed Shannon's love for Battler and Shannon splintered a part of herself to form Kanon, who would be Shannon's younger brother and complete Shannon's universe. Each persona developed their own love story: Beatrice-Battler / Shannon-George / Kanon-Jessica * Former persona: Golden Witch Beatrice (loves Battler) * 1st persona: Shannon (loves George) * 2nd persona: Kanon (loves Jessica) Yasu-Beatrice also created imaginary friends alone or with the help of Maria: *Gaap: Yasu's idea of Beatrice before she took the name and title of witch. Gaap would be Yasu's first friend on Rokkenjima. *Ronove: Beatrice's butler (reflection of Genji) *Virgilia: Beatrice's teacher (reflection of Kumasawa) *The Seven Stakes of Purgatory: Beatrice's high class furniture. All the sisters are a reflection of the servants who teased Yasu. (with Maria's help) *The Siestas: High class furniture (with Maria's help) made from Maria's bunny forest band. *Sakutaro: Maria's best friend and furniture (Maria's furniture) Trivia * Yasu's note at the end of Legend of the Golden Witch is very similar to the note Keiichi Maebara left at the end of Onikakushi-hen. * ﻿It is unconfirmed if Yasu is male or female. Some believe that Yasu was born male but became genderless because of injury received in the cliff fall and was raised as female. As a result, Yasu may have begun to identify as a female, which may also explain why two of Yasu's "strongest" personas are women. * Yasu having both male and female personas and sexual attraction to both genders may be due to the conclusion held by Yasu towards whether to identify as male or female. * Descriptions in the book indicate that Yasu doesn't suffer from dissociative identity disorder(multiple personality disorder), like many fans think, but, mostly likely, has a gender-identity disorder. * It is possible that Yasu planned to become a red herring to hide identity of the true culprit. * Supposedly Yasu commited suicide on October 6, 1986, as the boat scene in EP8 showed, but there are also are people who believe that Yasu actually survived and became Ikuko. * Portraits of Yasu's persona/alternate universe self, Beatrice and Lion, have been featured, meaning Yasu is the character with most featured portraits. * Yasu's appearance is not shown in Episode 7. Bernkastel constantly displays Yasu as Clair Vaux Bernardus to confuse Theatergoers. Shannon and Kanon are only played roles. * Many fans believe Yasu's appearance to be similar to Lion's, but there is no given evidence or official artwork of Yasu's true appearance (as only the character's multiple personas are shown). * The TIP "Memoirs by Lady Lambda-Delta" (Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa) indicates that a male can also be called a witch. That means the witch title doesn't depend on a person's gender, leaving Yasu's gender ambiguous. *In the "Answer to the Golden Witch", Ryukishi07 responded to "a body that is unable to love" with "If you take this expression as a basis, you can imagine their sad fate of having some kind of imperfection on a sexual level" implying that the injury had some influence on Yasu's sexual problems/gender. He also states that he had to obscure it, because it was a very adult topic. **Also Ryukishi said:"How scary must it be, to be told that your partner “wants children”, when you have a body that cannot make love." - reffering to Shannon/Yasu, what might imply that Yasu is unable to have sex. Category:Characters